Introduction – Origin of Life

However, any living being’s FUTURE LIVES are created by that living being.

It is critical to understand how one’s mindset and thoughts (in particular abhisaṅkhāra) can lead to different types of rebirths. That is the basis of Buddha Dhamma and is explained in Paṭicca Samuppāda (PS.)

In simple terms, “bad thoughts/mindset” lead to “bad births” and “good thoughts/mindset” lead to “good births.” The problem is that most are “bad births” and those infrequent “good births” do not last long.

2. In the first several posts in “Origin of Life,” we discussed the background material necessary to understand how a complex physical body of a human starts with a single cell, a zygote.

However, the most important part of a human is not the physical body, but the mental body. It goes by various names in Buddha Dhamma, manōmaya kāya and gandhabba being the most common. However, that mental body arises due to a paṭisandhi viññāṇa and remains as a kamma bīja until coming to the mind of a living being at the beginning of a new existence (bhava) as a dhammā.

Average humans focus only on keeping the physical body in good condition. It is much more beneficial to improve the “mental body.” That way, one will be able to stop ALL FUTURE SUFFERING.

Then we discussed the 1990 movie “ghost” to provide visualization of a human gandhabba. A gandhabba has only a trace matter. An average human cannot see a gandhabba. However, it has the complete “blueprint” for a human. See, “Ghost 1990 Movie – Good Depiction of Gandhabba Concept.”

4. There is a lot of information summarized above using different terms. In the following, I will try to organize that in a systematic way and will also describe the “bigger picture” within the 31 realms of existence.

The General Process of Grasping an Existence (Bhava)

5. In broad terms, there are three main existences (bhava) but they branch out to thirty-one. Existence in the kāma bhava (i.e., 11 realms in kāma lōka), rūpa bhava (16 realms in rūpāvacaraBrahma lōka), and arūpa bhava (4 realms in arūpāvacara Brahma lōka.) The 11 realms in kāma lōka are the 4 realms in the apāya, one human, and six Dēva realms.)

Thus, there are 31 existences (bhava) in this world. Any living being belongs to one of those.Each such existence has a finite lifetime. Some are fixed and others are variable. Dēva and Brahama realms have fixed lifetimes. Lower realms starting with the human realm have variable lifetimes. See, “31 Realms of Existence.”

However, when a living being grasps a new existence in ANY realm, the duration of that existence WILL BE fixed. For the human and lower realms, that lifetime depends on the kammic energy that “feeds” that particular existence. For example, one human may have that human existence for 10,000 years and another may have only 900 years.

Each Bhava Starts With a Mind-Made Body (Manōmaya Kāya)

6. Any living being (other than an Arahant) will grasp (or latch onto) a new existence when the current existence runs out of its lifetime. At that moment, kammic energy for the new existence creates a “mind-made body” or a manōmaya kāya.

That transition from one existence (bhava) to another happens with an uppatti PS process. Specifically, that happens with the “upādāna paccayā bhava” step in that uppatti PS cycle.

But it is a patisandhiviññāṇa” created via “saṅkhāra paccayā viññāṇa” step in PS that is responsible for that new existence (bhava.)

In other words, the kammic energy embedded in that patisandhi viññāṇa is the energy that creates the manōmaya kāya of the new existence (bhava.) Thus, manōmaya kāya has only a tiny bit of energy that was created by the mind.

That manōmaya kāya does not die until the end of that bhava. Living beings in each and every realm will have a manōmaya kāya.

Brahma Realms Only Have Manōmaya Kāya

7. A manōmaya kāya has a hadaya vatthu (seat of the mind) and UP TO five pasāda rūpa (that enable experiencing the external world.) The hadaya vatthu is different for different realms and also has INDIVIDUAL characteristics. Thus even two humans will have different hadaya vatthu embedding their personal characteristics. The following is a brief summary of different realms.

The four highest Brahma realms (arūpāvacara Brahma realms) have ONLY the hadaya vatthu. Those Brahmā can only think.

Brahmā in the 16 rūpāvacara Brahma realms have hadaya vatthu and TWO pasāda rūpa: cakkhu and sōta pasāda rūpa. They can see and hear with just those pasāda rūpa. They do not have physical bodies, and thus do not have eyes and ears like us. Their “seeing” does not require light and they “see’ things far away. In the same way, they can hear sounds that are far away. But they need to “direct their attention” to a particular location to see or hear.

All those Brahmā in the 20 Brahma realms have only manōmaya kāya.

Living Beings in Kāma Lōka Realms Have Denser Bodies In Addition to Manōmaya Kāya

8. Things become complex when we get to the 11 realms in the kāma lōka.

Devā in the six Dēva realms have manōmaya kāya with hadaya vatthu and five pasāda rūpa. They also have “physical bodies” like ours but at a much finer level. Those “subtle bodies” are also created by kammic energy and thus Devā are born with their “full bodies.” That means they do not grow or get old but just die at the end of their lifetimes. There is only one “jāti” within a Brahma or Dēva bhava. We cannot see either Brahmā or Devā.

Human “structure” is the same as that of the Devā but, of course, human physical bodies are much denser. Furthermore, human “structure” has many common features with the animal realm. The other three lower realms in the kāma lōka are more complex and we will not discuss them here.

Let us briefly discuss the features of the human and animal realm. I will address only the human realm, but most of those features are the same for the animal realm.

There are Multiple Jāti Within a Human Bhava

9. A human also has a manōmaya kāya with a hadaya vatthu and five pasāda rūpa. But a human can exist in TWO forms.

ONE: Much of the time in the human bhava, it stays with JUST the manōmaya kāya. That state is normally referred to as the gandhabba state. A gandhabba is like a Brahma in the following aspect. A gandhabba can see and hear without the aid of physical eyes and physical ears. Even though it has five pasāda rūpa, it cannot touch, taste, or smell since there is no dense physical body.

TWO: A human will have a “dense physical body” only after that gandhabba (manōmaya kāya) gets into a womb and creates a physical human body.

It is good to contemplate how such a tiny amount of energy in a manōmaya kāya can “build” a human body that can weigh over a hundred pounds (or many kilograms.)

A Gandhabba for a Human Is Like a Seed for a Tree

10. A good point to start is to think about how a tiny seed grows into a huge oak tree.

That seed has the blueprint for the whole tree. The seed germinates and pulls in food and water from the soil to grow into a large tree. The tree trunk, limbs, and leaves are all made from the food and water extracted from the soil.

The mental body or the gandhabba has the blueprint for a full-grown human. Some features of the physical body come from the parents via the zygote.

11. We saw that the seed takes all the “building material” from the soil to grow to a tree. A “live zygote” grows first by taking food from the mother to become a baby. Once outside the womb, that baby starts eating food and becomes a grown human.

This is why the physical body is secondary to the mental body (gandhabba.) All mental activities are with the gandhabba. Furthermore, a gandhabba is fully human. It just does not have a dense body to be able to touch, eat, or to smell odors. See, “Ghost 1990 Movie – Good Depiction of Gandhabba Concept.”

The Lifetime of a Gandhabba Is the Length of Human Bhava

When a physical body dies, the gandhabba comes out and waits for another womb. However, that gandhabba state in between two human lives is not an antarābhava because it is within the SAME human bhava. See, “Antarābhava and Gandhabba.”

A human jāti lasts around a hundred years, but a human bhava may last thousands of years.

Those different human births (jāti) within a human bhava will have similar characteristics. The physical appearance will change since those of parents influence via the zygote. But the successive lives usually have similar gati and also tend to have close geographic locations of birth.

How Does a Gandhabba (or a Brahma)See and Hear Without Eyes and Ears?

13. In the movie “ghost” we saw that a gandhabba can see not only other gandhabbā (which is the plural for gandhabba) but also humans and anything else in the world. See, “Ghost 1990 Movie – Good Depiction of Gandhabba Concept.” How is that possible without having physical eyes and ears?

Our understanding of nature is extremely limited. Before modern science made some technical breakthroughs within the past hundred years or so, we would not have believed that it would be possible to “see” an event happening thousands of miles away, in real-time. Yet, we do that with televisions now and don’t think twice about it.

14. When a human gandhabba is born (at a cuti-paṭisandhi moment of grasping a new bhava), the following amazingly miniature “sensors” are made by kammic energy.

They are hadaya vatthu (seat of the mind) and five pasāda rūpa (cakkhu, sōta, ghāna, jivhā, kāya.) Of course, the ghāna, jivhā, and kāya pasāda rūpa REQUIRE signals from a physical body (of odors, tastes, and touches) to function.

The cakkhu and sōta pasāda rūpa can detect visuals and sounds without the aid of eyes and ears. The cakkhu pasāda rūpa is the smallest entity that can “see.” Sōta pasāda rūpa is the smallest entity that can hear.

Evidence for the existence of gandhabba (manōmaya kāya) has accumulated over the recent years, as we discuss now.

Seeing and Hearing With the “Mental Body” (Gandhabba)

15. People who had Near-Death Experiences (NDE) say they could see and hear even though their physical bodies (and the brains) were “clinically dead.” They say they were watching doctors operating on their bodies from the ceiling. Their “mental bodies” (gandhabbā) had come out of the physical body. The book “Consciousness Beyond Life” by physician Pim van Lommel (2010) gives detailed accounts of case studies of NDE experienced by people undergoing heart operations. Here is a youtube video on the subject:

Some people can have Out-of-Body Experiences at will; see, “Manōmaya Kāya and Out-of-Body Experience (OBE).” They can remove their gandhabba kāya from the physical body at will. Then they do not need eyes and ears to see and hear.

Even though there are people who say they can teach others how to do that, I don’t think that is possible. That ability is due to a puñña iddhi or due to past good kamma.

16. It is critical to realize that there phenomena that cannot be explained with our ordinary sensory experiences. Only a Buddha can discover these “hidden” facts about a wider world with 31 realms.

However, the Buddha said that average humans are not capable of fully comprehending the characteristics of living beings in various realms. It is good to know the basic facts, but it does not serve any purpose to try to rationalize them with the limited sensory faculties we have.

Yet any average human is capable of figuring out that these explanations are self-consistent and help clarify many of our experiences. That confidence will grow as one starts following the Path (i.e., not only living a moral life but also learn the true nature of this world.) The mind becomes purified and is able to ‘see” at deeper levels.

Why Do We Have Physical Bodies?

17. We need physical bodies to be able to touch (and for sex), taste foods, and to smell odors. But a physical body comes with a price. We have to endure all kinds of diseases including cancer, body aches, the decay of body parts, etc. Brahmā and Dēvā do not experience those, but of course, death is inevitable to all.

Furthermore, it is a burden to “carry around” this heavy body. As I have mentioned before, even breathing requires an effort (but only asthma patients feel that.) It is such a relief to come out of the physical body, as described by those who have had NDE or OBE experiences.

However, if one is forced to stay with the gandhabba body for a long time, one will start “missing” the ability to touch, taste, and smell. That is why all human gandhabbā desperately wish to be able to get into a womb to get a human birth.

The point is that a gandhabba with an unimaginably small “body” can experience everything better, except the ability to touch, taste, and smell.

Why Are There So Many Different Terms for Kammic Energy?

18. Even though viññāṇa, kamma bīja, dhammā, and gandhabba are related, those terms are used in different contexts. Here is one way to remember how these different terms appear in different situations.

When the conditions are right, a strong kamma bīja can give rise to a new existence (bhava) when those kammic energies come back to the mind as dhammā.

Such a new existence are grasped as paṭisandhi viññāṇa. That paṭisandhi viññāṇa gives rise to a manōmaya kāya, which has a special name of gandhabba for human and animal realms.

Manōmaya kāya means “a body made by the mind.” That is how we create our own future lives!

If you do not fully understand the above, you can read the previous posts in this series, or ask questions. It may take a little while to fully comprehend all relationships.

19. We have now finished the first phase of Buddha Dhamma dealing with the origin of life. Life is not created by a Creator. It does not arise arbitrarily either. We discussed those two extreme views earlier in “Origin of Life” series.

Those concepts discussed above could be new to many, and thus may take some time to understand or get used to. But I assure that there is complete self-consistency of what I have described and also consistency with the Tipiṭaka. My suggestion is to print out this series of posts and to have them ready for quick reference. If there are any questions, please comment at the forum or send an email: [email protected]

We will discuss several significant implications that can be reached with this “correct world view” of the Buddha in future posts.